Saturday, 11 June 2011

Slow Motion Denouement: 1 Working Day Remaining

You know the bit at the end of what seems like most Bond films, where our hero works to the very last second to disarm some kind of nuclear bomb?

I know that feeling. If 270 KTA isn't ready by Tuesday morning at 9 o'clock, MOT tester Dave Guscott probably willexplode. All over North Devon.

When I phoned him in the week to say that we were "nearly ready again", he resisted a jibe and just chuckled. He's heard that many times before...

But we are nearly ready, except for a huge 'To Do' list of mercifully small jobs through which I'll be ploughing tomorrow - my last working day if I'm to disarm the bomb.

Todayhasbeenproductive.

I've solved a problem with the reversing light, which (you may have spotted in previous photos) was shining all the time. Before I had it the bulb had been taken out, presumably to hide this fact from the MOT men. The original fault must have been so for years: it turns out the bolt which operates the switch was too long, therefore pushing the contacts together even when the bus was in neutral.

Maybe this is why we've been going backwards a lot of late?

I've also properly secured the front number plate, which was previously hanging on by just two rotten bolts. Another little job I've been meaning to do for months...

Tomorrow will be a long day. I'm planning an early start, and I expect I'll still be going when it gets dark.

Or perhaps tomorrow night I'll be winding down to a hiatus on a private yacht somewhere, evading calls from my superiors while I make love to a Martini?

1 comment:

Funny you should mention the reversing light. I recall on LFJ 844W that the reversing light seemed to come on while passing through neutral I believe. I remember drivers trundling behind 844, and then suddenly slamming on the brakes when the reversing light came on for no apparent reason! HJN

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This blog is an ongoing chronicle of the adventures I share with my preserved 1962 Bristol SUL4A coach.

Here you'll find tales aplenty of the joy and strife associated with keeping alive a 55 year old vehicle.

Our adventures have been many and varied over the past seven years. The blog’s archive contains rich and colourful stories of success and failure that have typified life with 270 KTA so far; stories of man and machine in perfect harmony, briefly but sometimes brutally interrupted by the odd discordant note.

This blog now has a 'brother' in BDV252C.co.uk, which follows the long-term restoration of my 1965 Bristol SUL bus. To balance the tales of woe and elation in each story, I recommend you follow the two blogs in equal measure!

David Sheppard, 2018

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About 270 KTA

270 KTA (420) is a 1962 Bristol SUL4A coach, one of 36 such coaches built for Western National and Southern National for use in the West of England. They were predominantly for local tours but also provided relief on express services to London and the North during busy periods.

Bristol's SU-type was a narrow, lightweight chassis designed specifically for use in rural areas. As well as the South West, SU coaches found their way to Wales, with bus-bodied counterparts in Yorkshire, the Isle of Wight and parts of the Home Counties.

420 has a 33-seat body built by Eastern Coachworks of Lowestoft and a 4-cylinder Albion EN250H diesel engine, mounted horizontally underfloor and coupled to a David Brown 5-speed gearbox.

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A BRIEF HISTORY

420 worked from Western National's Kingsbridge depot when new, where it was to be pride of the fleet for six years. With the decline in local coach tours it moved to Taunton where, along with most other SU coaches, alterations were made to enable use on local bus routes.

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Moving to Trowbridge depot in 1968, it was something of a oddity in Wiltshire and as such was very well photographed during its stay. When the Trowbridge operation was transferred away from Western National, 420 was returned to Taunton, narrowly missing transfer to the Bristol Omnibus fleet. (Or did it?)

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420 was renumbered 1220 in June 1971 and, following a spell at Bridgwater depot, was transferred to the Devon General fleet. Accordingly, it received poppy red and white livery - the only SUL coach to be so treated. It was also the only one of its batch to be fully downgraded to bus configuration, with the removal of headrests and the addition of extra seats.

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Withdrawn from Weymouth depot (still red), '1220' later worked as a school bus in Sussex, before returning to the West to join the fleet of Willis, Bodmin. It was donated to the Western National Preservation Group in 1995, and remained with them for several years, although its poor mechanical state meant it was little used.

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Purchased by me in December 2009, it was returned to the road in 2011 after major mechanical attention. A rolling programme of restoration has continued while allowing 420 to be used at events and enjoyed by others. By fluke or fate, it now lives just a few miles away from its original home in Kingsbridge and is part of a family fleet of five preserved Bristol vehicles.

270 KTA's Owner and Scribe

David Sheppard lives in the South West of England. He has been involved in bus and coach preservation for more than 25 years, having helped his father to restore their first bus at the age of seven.

David is a trustee and director of the Thames Valley & Great Western Omnibus Trust and a director of NARTM, the National Association of Road Transport Museums, which represents the heritage transport movement to Government departments and agencies, regulators and funding bodies.

A broadcaster by trade, he hosts his own regional show on BBC radio stations across the south‐western quarter of the UK and Channel Islands.